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NYU Florence

NYU Florence offers a broad range of courses, with a strong focus on the humanities and social sciences. Innovative, site-specific offerings in art history, history, literature and cinema are featured alongside a vibrant curriculum in sociology, politics and economics. These courses not only take advantage of the extraordinary cultural resources provided by the city of Florence, and its strategic position within Italy and Europe, but also of a unique array of co-curricular lectures and activities that make the Florence campus a dynamic center for scholarly exchange and global policy discussions.

What can study abroad in Florence mean to students? An encounter with the city of Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio; direct examination of world-famous masterpieces of art in the "birthplace" of the Renaissance; to consider contemporary social issues at a campus where encounters for students with major European and American protagonists of world social and economic policy are a regular occurrence.

Throughout the year, students at NYU Florence benefit from the opportunity to participate directly in the high-level political, social and cultural policy dialogues organized on our campus. In previous years, we have hosted both Republican and Democrat presidential campaign managers, had a three-way dialogue with leading local Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders, and held a student-organized contemporary poetry slam. Through La Pietra Dialogues, interested students also have the opportunity to participate directly in the organization of the events that bring these outstanding figures to NYU Florence.

NYU Florence provides the atmosphere of a small college campus while studying abroad. An extremely low student to faculty ratio ensures small class size; many courses are organized partly or entirely as seminars. Our 57-acre estate, with olive groves and gardens, has five villas that provide a home to NYU Florence. These include Villa La Pietra with its house museum, and formal gardens. Students enjoy the opportunity to "live" Villa La Pietra during: visits to the collection; poetry readings, concerts, performances and lectures that take place inside or in the gardens of the villa

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La Pietra Dialogues

LPD convenes some of the world’s foremost scholars, policy makers, practitioners, business leaders, public intellectuals and artists whose ideas and work have made a significant cultural or intellectual contribution to global society and the revival of the spirit of humanism for which Florence is known. They gather at Villa la Pietra, New York University's exceptional site in Florence, to confront some of the most intractable issues of contemporary society through the creative interplay of ideas and perspectives.
LPD fosters the creation of partnerships across disciplines, cultures and institutions, as an established center in the heart of Europe attached to an American university with branches throughout the world, and contributes to the emerging global civic discourse that is at the heart of NYU’s mission as a global network university.Read More

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Villa La Pietra

Villa La Pietra is the jewel in the crown of New York University's global program. Bequeathed to NYU in 1994 by Sir Harold Acton, the Florentine study abroad campus consists of 5 historic villas and 57 acres of gardens and olive groves. Villa La Pietra, the Acton Collection, and the Garden are maintained as they were by the Acton family and serve as an inspiration to all who live and study on the campus. Read More